Investigating the sulfonated ZnO–PVA membrane for improved MFC performance

Abstract In the era of climate change and the global energy crisis, alternate energy sources are desirable to replace carbon and fossil fuels. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are distinctive because of their ability to transform organic waste into electricity through bio-electrochemical reactions. The current study investigates the preparation and application of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and sulfonated ZnO nanoparticles (SZnO NPs) incorporated in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) membrane as a separator in dual-chambered MFC for Tannery wastewater treatment. Characterization of these membranes shows that the NPs are well dispersed onto the polymer base. The synthesized sulfonated membrane has better water uptake capacity (90.5%) and oxygen mass transfer coefficient (1.09 × 10−6 cm·s−1) than the Nafion membrane water uptake capacity (21.8%) and oxygen mass transfer coefficient (2.68 × 10−4 cm·s−1). Different amounts of NPs were incorporated into the polymer base to optimize the membrane performance by increasing the proton conductivity for better operation in MFC with reduced biofouling. When the MFC was operated with tannery wastewater, a maximum power density of 160.554 mW·m−2 and a chemical oxygen demand removal of 84.618% were obtained using the PVA–SZnO membrane with reduced biofouling. This observation proves that the sustainable and affordable PVA–SZnO membrane can be used as a separator for MFC and for treating Tannery wastewater.